Ricardo Toro, Efren Santana, Jose Antonio Nunez, Jose Luis Leon
Urban-Think Tank’s Vertical Gymnasium (GIMNASIO VERTICAL™) is a prefabricated construction system installed on the site of a run down, existing inner-city sport field. The design explores a modular and vertical arrangement of facilities for various sports (Volleyball, Martial Arts, Running Track, Weight lifting area, Basketball, etc.) and a Parking Structure.
Petare is the largest Informal Settlement in Venezuela and U-TT has identified a rectangular site which fronts the main formal Avenue of Romulo Gallegos on the South and in the North the Barrio of Petare.
UTT was called to place a gym with a parking garage that could double for a Market. We aimed to build a vertical, integrated sporting facility that allows for multiple disciplines to play above one another and have access from both the North and the South of the site. The design needed to fit together just right so that the spatial ordering could bring together different sports, among a myriad of other possible uses.
The inner city is an area where little open land is available, crime rates and violence are skyrocketing and population densities up to 768 per/ha are common. We believe that practicing sports should not be for a privileged few.
Engaging with sports and games was not new to UTT’s way of thinking and working. Gyms have a role in the training of athletes, of course, but they are also community hubs and informal meeting places, creating opportunities to educate children and adults as well. They are sites of integration, what Michel Foucault called “other spaces,” where the distinctions of class and background fall away, enabling social interaction, and some of the harshness of everyday life is at least temporarily suspended.
Many barrio residents worked in the service industry in the wealthy area, but very few people from outside had ever considered going into the barrio. The gym provided the impetus for changing this pattern: with its generous spaces, diverse sports, and cultural offerings, the gym could be a magnet for everybody in the area. It would be a social mixer for the two neighborhoods, bringing fragmented communities together in joint activities in one space.
Our experience with these projects made it abundantly clear that the gyms can be dynamic social centers and an effective response to the lack of public infrastructure in Caracas. The vertical gyms have become places for everyone, young, old, rich, and poor. They serve as lighthouses, responding and speaking to the common needs and collective pride of the community. Sports fields, cultural venues, spaces for worship, and marketplaces all are enablers of social interaction, nurturing, celebration, and conflict resolution. The gym has emerged as a safe, secure, and covered public space made for the people of Caracas by the people.
Given the dire need for such facilities in low-income neighborhoods and informal settlements around the world, U-TT wishes to partner with municipal governments, private businesses, industry, and community organizations that are interested in bringing a Vertical Gym to their respective cities.
